Patience
by alexisthehybrid
Summary: When Ratchet gets a call about the Decepticons threatening the lives of civilians, he assumes it's just another day at the workplace. But when he gets injured on the job, he's going to have to finally learn to accept the help his teammates and human friends want to give him. Might be shipping later in story.
1. Too Far

**Hey guys! I'm new, and this is my first story, so I'm sorry if it's not great, but please give me any constructive criticisms you might have.****So the inspiration this was sparked (ha see what I did there?) by Marvel's _Agents of Shield_, but the characters all belong to Hasbro's _Transformers: Prime_. I do not own Transformers or _Agents of Shield_.****Anyway, enough chitchat. On with the story!**

This time, the 'Cons had gone too far.

"Prime!" Agent Fowler's voice in his usual unamused tone rang out in Ratchet's audio receptors. "We got a situation. You're gonna need to take a look at this." Ratchet turned toward the monitor Fowler was on.

"Optimus is on patrol, Agent Fowler. And the others are picking up Rafael, Miko, and Jack from school. What's wrong?" Ratchet wasn't exactly the most keen on helping the grouchy military man, but he knew Fowler was a helpful asset, so he learned to live with the noise.

"Some workmen spotted a 'device of unusual make' deep in the subways of New York. Take a look at this." Fowler pulled up an image amd zoomed in. "Crews found this beneath a hospital on the edge of Queens. And I'll be dipped if that isn't the Decepticons' version of an IED."

Ratchet's optics widened. He immediately recognized the simplistic red display and the smooth black box it was attached to. This wasn't any ordinary bomb. This was the device responsible for wiping out huge chunks of cities on Cybertron. It would incinerate Queens and the rest of New York City with it. There wasn't enough time to call for backup. He had to diffuse it. And from the looks of it, he didn't have much time to do so.

"Agent Fowler, what are the coordinates for the device?" Ratchet asked.

"I've already attached them to the image."

"Thank you. I'm going to bridge into the subway and diffuse the bomb from in there. I need you to make sure the hospital and the surrounding buildings are evacuated."

"Will do. Good luck, Ratchet."

Ratchet quickly closed the comm line. He punched in the coordinates and threw the lever. Looking back for a moment he inwardly chuckled at how upset Optimus was going to be over the folly of not calling for backup. But he quickly waved off the thought and transformed to his vehicle mode and sped through the ground bridge.

Ratchet came through the other side expecting some sort of security measure on the bomb. A guard, a voice lock, anything, but after examination, there was no security to be found. He quickly opened it up and began the painstaking procedure for diffusing a bomb.

The reason that this bomb so dangerous was the fact that it was not one, but actually several bombs strung together on one circuit, which made it incredibly hard to diffuse and very volatile. One incorrectly clipped wire set all of them off.

_Clip_. One bomb diffused. Several minutes later... _clip_. He was halfway done with his work when he heard two voices behind him.

"Well, this is a more than a little disappointing," Knockout sighed, "However, I suppose he shall have to suffice."

"Hey, we got their precious medic." sneered Breakdown. "But I will admit I was hoping Bulkhead would show."

The medic cursed under hs breath for not considering the possibility of it being a trap. Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to think as he was rushed upon by the two 'Cons. They rammed into him at full force. For what felt like hours, Ratchet fought the uphill battle against the two mechs.

Their fight was interrupted, however, by the sound of a shrill five-minute warning from the device.

"I'm afraid that's my cue to bid you _adieu_." Knockout cooed obnoxiously. Ratchet attempted one more swing, but was intercepted by Breakdown and flung against the way of the subway. Knockout gestured to one of the two Vehicon troopers that had arrived during the fight. The sentry aimed his blaster at the medic while the two 'Cons transformed and peeled away. Ratchet growled as he threw himself at the Vehicon. The other instantly drew his blaster and began firing at the Autobot medic. What he didn't notice was the bomb was directly in his line of fire.

"Wait, stop!" Ratchet yelled. "You could trip its-" but he never finished his sentence. A flash of white light overloaded his optics, an explosion was heard, and then everything went black.


	2. Blank

As Ratchet came to, he heard the worried voice of Raf call out.

"Optimus! Ratchet's waking up!"

He opened his optics, but his vision was foggy. With great effort, he attempted to sit up, but he felt a firm hand stop him and gently push him back down.

"Easy, old friend," Optimus said, "The blast was severe, and we found you in quite critical condition. Fortunately, I still remember how to stabilize a patient." Ratchet looked up at his friend and tried to speak, but even that required much strain. "You must rest, Ratchet. When you have regained some strength, we will run some scans of your neural net to be assured of your full recovery."

_Hmm. I wonder what kind of tests he will be running. _Ratchet thought. _Wait! I know this! I have gone over this procedure hundreds of times with other Autobots before! You just...__Hold on. What in Primus is a neural net?_

• • •

Ratchet shakily sat down on the sick bay berth, with the help of Bumblebee. It had been a couple days since the incident, but Ratchet's condition had improved remarkably since. Today they were set to scan his neural waves, just to make sure that there wasn't too much damage. He lay with the wires connected to the sides of his helm for several minutes before he heard Raf speak up.

"Scan is complete!" Ratchet looked over Rafael, and let a brief smile come over his face. For the first time, Ratchet realized how much he truly admired the young boy. He had learned so much, and the Autobot medic was impressed how easily he had taken up the medical and technical responsibilities that Ratchet himself could not currently fulfill. Unfortunately, Ratchet's thoughts were interrupted by a deeply concerned look that came over Raf's face.

"Optimus, your gonna want to come take a look at this." Raf called. Ratchet could already detect an edge in the human boy's voice. Optimus walked over, and stares at the monitor that Raf had currently posted the results onto.

"By the Primes..." Optimus said, his voice trailing off.

"What? What is it?" Ratchet desperately wanted answers, and yet no one spoke for a moment. In the time they were waiting, an equally curious team came over to see whta was the matter. Optimus gravely turned toward them.

"Ratchet has suffered severe damage to his neural net, in several places. Some of which have shut down altogether." He stopped for a moment. "Much more, and the damage might have been fatal."

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Then Arcee spoke up.

"So, what does that mean? Is the doc gonna recover? And what does that mean for him, y'know, going back to being himself?"

"With time, Ratchet will most likely recover. And as to your inquiry on the symptoms, we can not know how the injuries will manifest themselves until he has regained more of his strength. Let us hope that the damage is not quite as troubling as it appears."

While Optimus' words were optimistic, everyone, including Ratchet, picked up on the doubt in his voice. Now all they could do was pray he was wrong.

• • •

The next day, Bee and Arcee were helping Ratchet onto his feet when one the monitors started to beep. Bulkhead and Optimus came over to investigate, with the other three were close behind.

"Looks like a fresh Energon pulse." Bulkhead commented. "Think Starscream is gonna be willing to share?"

"We need all the Energon we can obtain." Optimus stated. "Ratchet prepare to ground bridge." He expected the familiar whirr of the ground bridge to come to life, but it never did. He turned arounddd to see Ratchet merely looking back and forth between the monitor and the lever for the ground bridge. "Ratchet. Is something wrong?"

The medic blinked and looked at his friend. "Hm? Oh no no, I... I just... want to give Rafael the opportunity to practice more on using our..." he paused.

"Ground bridge?" Arcee interjected.

"Yes, yes, of course. We are already understaffed. It will be good to have someone else with the..." He seemed to be searching for the word.

"_Beep bzzzzzz?_" Bumblebee whirred.

"Yes, expertise." Ratchet finished. He looked at Raf, who in turn punched a few buttons on his laptop, and the green vortex whizzed to life.

Arcee, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee went through. But Optimus lingered for a moment, observing his before he too disappeared in the brilliant light.

The moment they disappeared, Ratchet heard the humans commotion.

"Woohoo! Video game championship, Jack! You and me!" Miko cheered. "Loser does the other's chores for a week!"

"You're on!"

He sighed as he walked slowly back to sick bay, but he was stopped by Raf's voice.

"Hey, Ratchet? Are you ok?"

"Hm? Yes, Rafael, I'm fine. Just a simple headache. It shouldn't be any concern." He sat back down and stared at the floor. _Why couldn't I remember how to operate the ground bridge? It has been a few days, but not that long. Could it be__..._ He shivered and shook away the thought. He was fine, just overreacting.

"Hey, Ratchet?" Raf called up from the floor of the base. "I know you need to rest, but I was wondering if maybe you could teach me more about the nuances of Cybertronian tones?" He looked up expectantly at the mech.

Ratchet just looked at the little boy for a moment, then smiled at his curiosity and reached out his servo to pick up Raf.

He walked over to the main console as Raf pulled up some of the old files Ratchet had given him to practice on.

"So I was looking at this file on architectural requirements on Cybertron," Raf began, "and I came across what appears to be a breach in Delta Astrium's Rule, and I-" he stopped abruptly. "Ratchet, are you ok?"

Ratchet just stared at the screen, his expression quickly turning from confusion to horror. He very slowly turned to his human comrad.

"I... I can't..." he began, but he couldn't bring himself to say it aloud.

Raf's eyes widened. "_You... can't read it_."

• • •

**Thank you guys so much for reading this far! I'll hopefully get the next chapter out soon, but I'm on hiatus for the next couple weeks, so dont be upset. I'LL GET IT OUT A.S.A.P!!! Please review and follow!**


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